Buena Vista Here We Come

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We were really looking forward to our next stop in Buena Vista (BV) about 105 miles to the south of Kremmling. So many of the people from Colorado that we spoke to about our plans for this summer, raved about how nice BV is and how much we would like it. Even though it is nearly due south of Kremmling, which is west of the Continental Divide, our drive will take us back over the divide at Fremont Pass (elevation 11,318 feet) near the huge Climax Mine. We will also be camping just above 8000 feet again - about 600 feet higher than Kremmling. When we first picked our stop for the month of August at Mt Princeton RV Park, we just assumed the pronunciation of BV was BWAY-na Vista from our high school Spanish classes. But as we spoke with people, we learned the residents pronounce it BEW-na Vista. As hard as we tried, we likely only used the proper pronunciation half the time.

Mt Princeton RV park is aptly named. The 14,204 foot peak is about 10 miles southwest of the park and we had a great view of the mountain right from our kitchen window in the rig. The area just to the west of BV is known as the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. So named for the eight mountains over 14,000 feet with the majority of them named after Ivy League universities. Another nearby attraction to camp is the Arkansas River, only about 500 feet from our site. There are numerous rafting companies in the area offering all sort of different types of rafting trips. We had been a bit concerned about the railroad tracks that are only 200 feet from our site but we’re glad to discover they have been decommissioned and are no longer in used.

Mt Princeton with Morning Sun

Mt Harvard Just to the North

On our first full day in BV, we head out for a nearby hike. Midland Hill Trail is a 5.3 mile out and back hike which sounds easy enough. But the catch is that it gains over 1600 feet in the first half of the hike for an average grade of 14% ending at 9,521 feet. With numbers like that, we think it deserves to be called Midland Mountain instead of Hill. The trailhead for the hike is out of a large park with nearby soccer and baseball fields. A pedestrian bridge takes us over the Arkansas River and then along the eastern side of the river. Lots of water loving people are out enjoying rafting or even surfing!

Rafters Heading Out on Arkansas River

Mt Princeton in Background

Surfing the River

This is another hike where it isn’t perfectly clear where we are heading when we look at the “hills” we can see up ahead. Fortunately the trail is well marked and maintained. The initial part of the trail is multi use and we can see mountain bike tire tracks but based on the terrain, it seems rather unlikely we will be trying these trails with our bikes. About a mile into the hike we cross a rather major dirt road. We might need to investigate this since it may be more in line with our cycling skills.

Heading Up There?

View of BV

Crossing County Road 304

Looking Northwest

The trail is a good mix of wooded and open terrain providing both shade and decent views of town and the nearby Collegiate Mountains. The last half of the uphill climb is designated as hikers only. There were lots of large boulders and some very rocky sections that were a challenge to hike so it was good to see that the locals even agree that this isn’t a place for mountain biking.

Midland Hill is on the Right

Well Signed Trail Crossing

Large Boulder on Way Up

Rock Scramble Section

As we continue up, we see what we assume to be the the correctional facility in town. As we look to the north, we see the unmistakable look of a storm. We really hope it stays up there. The final push to the top wasn’t all that bad. It’s a fairly small peak but plenty of room to look in all directions. We took the opportunity to enjoy our lunch as we kept a close eye on the weather to our north.

BV Correctional Facility Below

Storm Clouds Towards Leadville

View from Midland Hill

Our Lunch Spot

Butterfly

More Storm Clouds

Looking Northeast

We didn’t take a long break since the rain appeared be moving our way and we knew this wouldn’t be a fun hike if the conditions were wet. We made it down the hill without issue and didn’t get wet either. As we got closer onto to the river, we saw more groups of rafters out for their afternoon ride. One raft hit a rocky rapids section and came to a dead stop. We watched them for a good 5 minutes as they attempt to dislodge themselves. The good news was the water wasn’t coming into the raft so it didn’t seem to be in too much danger. The guide tried to have the 6 shift from one side to the other, jump up and down and push off of rocks with their paddles but they didn’t move. Eventually the guide carefully stepped out of the raft with one leg and managed to get pushed off the rock they were stuck on. It will be a memory these six people will remember. This turned out to be a nice albeit challenging hike for us.

Chris Starts the Journey Down

Looking Back at Midland Hill

Rafters - One on the right is Stuck

Our Track

The next day we head out for a bike ride that a fellow camper at our park suggested. The route isn’t so much a bike ride as it is a very lightly traveled county road (#371). There is a locked gate with a keypad out of the campground that allows us to get right to the road without taking other surface streets. The first 3/4 mile is paved but then switches to gravel. It turned out to be rather wide and in good condition with only a few sections of washboard surface. After half a mile of the gravel road, we run up into the Midland Tunnels. It s series of tunnels cut into the rocky hillside in the late 1800’s for the original railroad line that came through here. They aren’t very long so it is easy to see the opposite side to verify cars aren’t coming before heading in. The first tunnel has an opening near the middle. It’s unclear whether the intention was to have one continuous tunnel and it collapsed during blasting.

Beautiful Setting for Home

Approaching First Tunnel

Open Section of Tunnel

Looking Back at Tunnels

Just a short distance further is the third tunnel that is quite short on length. On the other side is the Elephant Rock Campground on the west side of the road and a parking lot on the east side where there were some climbers going up the side of the rocks. At the entrance to the campground was a large rock that when seen in person could be considered to look like it’s name.

Approaching 3rd Tunnel

Do You See the Elephant?

Busy Morning at Climbing Area

Climbers Partway Up

About 3 miles further up the road is Railroad Bridge Campground. A few rigs were setup in the half dozen spots. One motorhome was big enough that we knew it hadn’t come from our direction since it would not have fit thru the tunnels. Beside the campground, there is a boat launch and two teams of rafters were getting their last minute instructions before heading to the water.

A Cirque in the Mountains

Approaching Old RR Bridge

Rafters Getting Last Minute Instructions

After a brief visit we continued north up the road. We didn’t really have a set destination or length of ride but since we hadn’t brought along lunch, we knew we would be forced to turn back from hunger before being tired. The road pretty much follows the Arkansas River and is often only separated by 50 feet or so. We would occasionally see a raft or two heading down from some launch site further upstream. It did look like a lot of fun. We made it out 6 miles before deciding we should head back for lunch. The ride back turned out to be quite pleasant. It turned out that in those six mile, we had gained about 330 feet in elevation. It was so gradual that we never even really felt like we had been going uphill but on the return trip we could definitely tell we were heading downhill. It turned out to be a really nice 12 mile bike ride.

Arkansas River Below

Picture From Above

Rafters Spot Us and Wave Back

Log Cabin Along River

Long Exposure

Looking Back Downstream on Ride Back

The following day would take us on a 17 mile drive southwest of camp to the trailhead for the Narrow Gauge Trail 1432. This hike follows the old railroad used from 1880 thru 1926. It heads up Chalk Creek valley which flows between Mt Princeton and Mt Antero - both over 14,000 feet. The railroad didn’t follow the valley near creek level but up about 250 feet above the valley on the south side. It’s a pretty easy hike at only 4.5 miles round trip and gaining only 440 feet. It does top out at nearly 9000 feet but the elevation doesn’t seem to bother us. The views along the way are rather spectacular.

View Near Trailhead Across Valley

Heading Up Trail

Looking Up Valley

There were a couple of spots where some large rock slides have occurred. It appears that the cleanup effort simply got some of the larger rocks off the trail but left the majority of them to just cover the old rail bed and simple be a few feet higher. These were the only spots where Chris, with her fear of heights, didn’t enjoy crossing over. It doesn’t help that the drop off is quite extreme and the sharp, broken rocks flow all the way down to Chalk Lake below.

Rock Slide Area

Looking Back Down Valley

Chalk Lake Below

Part way up on the hike, we were just off the trail looking for a geocache when we heard voices approaching. We stood there drinking some of our water trying to not look too suspicious. It was two couples out for a walk but one of them had a unicycle! He had on all the appropriate safety gear but trying to unicycle on a trail, even one that is this easy of a hike, seems like a daunting task. We got to talking with them and ended up chatting as we all continued our walk. Occasionally the guy would get his wife to help him balance as he got up on it and took off. He never made it real far before falling but I do give him credit for even trying such a feat. The trail ends when it runs into Chalk Creek Drive. We head over to the creek which is right next to the road and get a geocache hidden near Cascade Falls. We sit in the shade right next to the raging creek.

Chalk Creek From Above

Raging Waters for a Creek

The return trip was all downhill so it was even easier. We did see some clouds rolling in and heard some distant thunder. We were almost back to the car when it started to sprinkle. Our plan to do a portion of a second nearby trail had to be put on hold due to the rain. It was still a very nice hike coming in at 5 miles with the extra stops near the creek.

Sign at Upper Trailhead

Heading Back Down Trail

We decided we needed a bit of a break from physical exertion so we head south about 25 miles towards the city of Salida. The first stop was at the Mt Shavano State Trout Hatchery. The parking area overlooks the rather large facility. We head down the stairs and are greeted by one of the volunteers. She and her husband are also RVers and live in their rig on the hatchery grounds and take turns with several other couples to help staff the visitor side of the operation.

Hatchery Entrance

Normally she would have visitors come into a small office to watch a video about the place but there was some action going one down at one of the holding pools and she took us down there to watch. Three workers wearing waders were in one of the raceways trying to round up all the trout with large nets. The fish were then dumped into a metal bucket on an hydraulic arm. When the bucket was full, another worker would raise the bucket over one of the trucks with a large tank and open the trap door to release the fish into the tank. These trout were destined for some lake or river in Colorado. Trout fishing is big business in this state and there are numerous hatcheries around the state to keep the fishing good and the visitors coming.

Trout

Trout Collection Day

Place The in Bucket

It was great that we got to see something that doesn’t happen every day. We then did head in to watch the video. It was fascinating to see how far the stocking of trout extends all over the state. Some fish are released from helicopters while some are even carried in by hikers. There was a small aquarium where a couple of special trout get to stay in cleaner and less crowded conditions.

Aquarium Trout

After the movie, we were handed a large bucket of fish food and sent out to the dozen larger pools full of trout. Some of them were rather small while others were about 8 to 10 inches long. They all seemed to be hungry and when we tossed handfuls of feed into the water, there was a mad dash as they all tried to get a bite. They seem to be conditioned for people feeding them because I seemed to be able to make a throwing motion to get them to swim one way and then toss the food the opposite way. It was rather entertaining to spend 20 minutes feeding the fish. It does turn out that getting a picture of them feeding is more challenging than one might imagine. Most of my shots looked like a some very turbulent water and no distinguishable fish.

Trout Skims Surface

Trout with Food Pellets in Motion

A Flurry of Trout

After we finished our feeding job, we chatted with the volunteer some more about our travels and where she and her husband have been doing these types of volunteer gigs. We really enjoyed this stop and it looks like the work the volunteers put in is relatively easy.

More Ponds at Hatchery

Next we head into town and find a pizza place that had decent reviews. Moonlight Pizza and Brewpub turn out to be quite nice. We went for their homemade root beer to go along with some good pizza. We walked thru town and it looked like some street vendors were setting up for the upcoming weekend.

Downtown Salida with "S" on Hill

On the east side of town is Riverside Park. The Arkansas River runs thru Salida too and there are lots of people out enjoying the water. All sorts of flotation devices are used from tubes, rafts and kayaks. The city even has a rack of various personal floatation devices and many people were simply borrowing one to float down the river a bit before running back up the walkway along the river. We sat and watched some of the activities. There were even a few rafts that came thru with one guy paddling and two guys fishing.

Floating Downstream With and Without a Tube

Busy Section of Park

Fishermen Coming Thru

There were several sections of rapids where the kayakers and kids on boogie boards were simply trying to ride the surf. They seemed to do fairly well until some tuber would come down the river and took one or two of them out. After enjoying the river, we headed over to nearby Poncha Springs to do a wine tasting at Vino Salida Wine Cellars. We enjoyed the tastings we did and picked up some wine for later.

Riding the Wave

Kids Surfing as Tuber Passes By